The Starship Super Heavy, a powerful rocket ship, was launched on Thursday by SpaceX, which Elon Musk controls. The Starship Super Heavy took off from the ground, however it was unable to enter orbit.
They dropped it while taking a spin, but hey, they escaped the starting line and had some fantastic first stage!Instagram: KbvlbhjYR9; Twitter: npUj2AHByW NSF employee Chris Bergin (@NASASpaceflight) April 20, 2023
From the aerospace complex Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, the Super Heavy rocket-powered Starship in its entire configuration took off. Starship was powered from the ground by the 33 Raptor engines of the Super Heavy rocket, which is considered to be a feat in and of itself.
Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/4t8mRP37Gp — SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 20, 2023
The goal of the orbital launch was to demonstrate the viability of spacecraft propulsion technology. The completely packed spacecraft was intended to travel 150 miles above the surface of the earth, but the mission was cut short by an explosion.
The Starship appeared to be unable to disengage from the Super Heavy and started to tumble before bursting into flames.After the mission’s failure, SpaceX remarked, “As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation.”
An array of Raptor engines, which run on liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid methane (CH4), propelled the Starship Super Heavy. The first-stage booster generates 1,67,33,085 pounds of thrust and can lift 150 tonnes of payload for a trip outside the planet thanks to a total of 33 Raptor engines.
Six raptor engines, three of which were set up to operate in the vacuum of space, would have been used to power the starship. The Starship’s steel body was covered in 18,000 hexagonal ceramic tiles, which SpaceX utilised as heat shields. As the Starship descends through Earth’s dense atmosphere, the light heat shields absorb the intense temperature and heat produced by the re-entry.
At least initially as part of Nasa’s recently launched human spaceflight programme, Artemis, getting the Starship into space would mark a significant step in SpaceX’s desire to bring people to Mars and the moon again.
While announcing the Artemis-II astronaut, Nasa also awarded SpaceX a multi-million dollar contract for the transportation of people to the Moon in a Starship.
Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, congratulated the Starship team after takeoff and said they had learnt a lot from Thursday’s flight, which was unsuccessful in reaching space.
“Congratulations to the SpaceX team for a fantastic Starship test launch! After the unsuccessful test launch, Musk tweeted, “Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months. Success is not certain, but enthusiasm is, the billionaire has previously stated.
